Community Stars Awards: Community Champion

Yakoob Ali

After having heart problems, Yakoob became a walk leader and led many walks for heart patients. Yakoob was volunteer co-ordinator for two projects and actively involved in award-winning projects Project Beat, which won the West Yorkshire Modernisation award, and Dard e Dil 999 DVD (chest pain), which was finalist in the Health Service Journal awards.

Yakoob’s role included recruiting and supporting groups of former heart patients for the projects.

Yakoob attended the Expert Patient Program, and subsequently completed the tutor course and delivers the course around the country. Yakoob is involved with local faith groups to promote religious and racial harmony.

According to his nomination: “Yakoob has worked hard and opened doors for many other community members to work in partnership with stakeholders, ie the NHS, the Council and faith organisations. Yakoob is an excellent communicator and with his personality, the rest of the volunteers gelled and worked really hard. Yakoob led the volunteers by example. He is a great believer of ‘ if you are nice to people, they will be nice to you’.

“What I like about Yakoob is he is critical in his thinking, and challenges people in a non-judgmental way to get the best out of people, ensuring that Bradford is getting the best out of the health services.”

Yakoob encouraged the rest of the volunteers to participate and share their experience on the award-winning DVD. Finding patients who had experience of chest pains and heart problems to talk about their experience on the DVD was quite challenging as some of them had almost died and found it too difficult to talk. The outcome of the project was:

•  A thousand copies of the DVD have been made
• It was an NHS Bradford and Airedale Inspiration Award winner
• Nearly 200 DVDs were distributed in the first month
•  The DVD was distributed nationwide
• The British Heart Foundation is to distribute the DVD via a data stick
• It gives patients greater choice and control

Anthony Hurthault

Anthony – Boney to his friends – has been a volunteer for many years and has organised many activities for young people in the past and continues to do so now. He has worked tirelessly to support young Afro-Caribbean children/ young people to be confident, positive and to have a strong sense of identity and self-esteem.

Many young people who he has worked with have now grown up and gone on to do other things, but remember him fondly for being a positive influence in their young lives. His voluntary work does not just stop at young people, he also works with Afro-Caribbean elders, supporting them at a local day centre and being a cheerful and enthusiastic person with a smile and a kind word to them.

The nomination said: “He has brought and given so much to the African-Caribbean community in a voluntary capacity and never asks for anything in return. You can see his genuine compassion and caring for his community is the reason for his voluntary work which is an example to us all.

“He works also with elders and again his motivation to help and support his community is ever-present. He seeks out those elders who are less confident and quiet and his cheerful and caring personality shines through and the older person is laughing and joining before they even realise it.

“Over the years VCA funding has been cut dramatically and a number of services to the African-Caribbean community have been lost, especially within the youth service. This has not deterred him from moving forward, he has carried on working behind the scenes to support and develop a local centre which was due for closing to be able to continue to provide services for the young people in the area.

“He has done this by using his community contacts and networks to recruit new community members with the right skills to be on the management committee of the centre to enable it to continue. The centre is now running a holiday play scheme for children and has many youth provisions on an evening to support the young people not just in the area, but from across the district.”

Orysia Zwyrik

Orysia leads Tea & Talk sessions where she also teaches arts and crafts, knitting and card making. The dynamics of group are such that it is mainly attended by males who have had either some mental health issues and head injuries.

She also hosts a ladies knitting and crochet group on a weekly basis, which she started four years ago.

Orysia’s nominations said: “Despite having medical conditions which give her difficulties with mobility and pain (she has severe arthritis in the lower part of her body), she is a lively and cheerful character who is full of enthusiasm and she can motivate others to do things.

“She is a lively and caring person who will go out of her way to help others. She had an accident on her mobility scooter when it skidded in the icy conditions this winter resulting in her being admitted to hospital. This hasn’t stopped her from carrying on with her volunteering and keeping to her commitments.

“Orysia has managed to get the Tea & Talk group to do card making, knitting and crafts which has been a real surprise because we didn’t expect this kind of enthusiasm. They are keen to do more and learn new skills.”